Postie makes final delivery

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WHEN Fred Fawcett started working for the General Post Office back in the sixties he never dreamt he would still be sorting the mail for Her Majesty 40 years later.

After countless man-hours on a job he says he has loved, Mr Fawcett, from Barnard Castle, has finally decided to bid farewell to early mornings and his red van.
He was 16-years-old when he started pounding the pavements in Cotherstone in 1969, and Mr Fawcett he said he has fond memories of those early days.
He said: “When I started the post master was Frank Warwick and he sent me to Cotherstone to take over from John Emmerson, who is now the manager of the delivery office.

“Cotherstone was a good round to start on, and in those days I spent as much time drinking tea in customers’ homes as I did delivering letters.”
When Mr Fawcett passed his driving test he found himself delivering letters all over the dale.

He said: “I did all the rounds at one time or another and I have really enjoyed the experience. Meeting people and driving around the countryside has been wonderful – Teesdale is a beautiful place.

“Every day there is something different, the wildlife, the scenery, the changing seasons and of course, the Teesdale weather.”
But the days of the community postman are almost a thing of the past. Times have moved on, and Mr Fawcett thinks these changes are not necessarily for the better.

The 56-year-old said: “In those early days we were given more time to appreciate the job but alas, no more.

“Those days went and we were given more and more mail to deliver. No more tea stops, no more talking for ages.”

After years of delivering the mail Mr Fawcett, who is married to Sue and has two sons, Luke and Simon, was offered the position of postman higher grade, which meant he would be off the rounds.

“It was more money and more responsibility. It meant working in the back office dealing with registered letters, clearing the mail from the front counters and despatching mail to the upper dale for second delivery,” he said.

As well as a change in job role, Mr Fawcett also saw a change in his surroundings when he moved to the Post Office’s new mail centre in Harmire Industrial Estate.

He said: “It was like moving out of the 19th century into the 21st century overnight. All modern equipment, computers, a proper enquiry office and lots of new technology to learn.”

Still yearning for the old days of the Post Office, Mr Fawcett decided to try and put together a lasting tribute to some of the service’s finest moments in the dale.

He said: “I decided several years ago to try and collect photos of postmen and women that had worked in Teesdale over the last 100 years.
“I have collected quite a few now and have set up a website for posterity, along with my ex-manager Dave Charlesworth. We’ve now had over 10,000 hits and we’re still going.”

When Mr Fawcett is not busy recapturing memories of the golden age of the Royal Mail, he will be spending time on his main hobbies which are fishing, bird watching and working on his allotment.

He said: “It will be strange not having to get up at 4.30 in the morning now I’m retired but it will be nice to be able to stay awake after 9pm and not to be woken on the couch by Sue shouting at me to go to bed because I’m snoring and she can’t hear the TV.

“I suppose it will take me a long time for my body clock to adjust – 40 years is a long time.”